Becky H

I’ve been a young carer since I was 10 years old, after my sister, mum and I were involved in an accident.

Because my mum was seriously injured, I became her young carer. A few years later, my dad had a nervous breakdown, which resulted in me caring for both my parents.

From a very young age I’ve been cooking, cleaning, shopping and budgeting the household bills for my family.

The strain of this took its toll on my studies and I began missing school a lot in order to help out around the house. Trying to balance my home life with school was one of my biggest challenges, and I know a lot of young carers are experiencing the same struggles.

I and a group of other Fixers decided to make a short film to raise awareness of our situation. The film will be screened to students and teachers so that schools can offer more support for young carers, and understand the challenges that we face outside of education.

Jill Kennedy, Assistant Head of Enrichment and Extended Learning at the school, said:

‘This is what our students needed to hear and how better it coming from young people who have gone through these issues themselves.

‘Becky made it clear what young carers have to do – and the fact that you can be a carer from as young as 5 years shocked our students.’

Fixer Becky Hammerton shows her film to students at Poole High School

May 2014

Our Fixers film has been very well received. Here is what two young people who saw our campaign had to say:

'It's about time people know. And this is a part of me that barely anyone knows.'

'I'm a young carer too and this video hit hard seeing people that I can relate to. This video really does state what we do regularly which people take for granted.'

December 2013

I met my MP, Christopher Chope, on 20th December. He wrote to me afterwards to say he is looking forward to hearing about the next stage of my campaign.

He’s pledged to make enquiries about my ineligibility for a carer’s allowance. He’s also written to the Chief Executive of the County Council about the young carers group that I’m a member of – Dorset Young Carers.

As well as the above, this project has had such a positive impact. It's given me something to focus on and has given me motivation to think about where I want to go in life and how to get there. Fixers has been a really fantastic thing for me.